<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Understand Me by rhodrymavelyne</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658652">Understand Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne'>rhodrymavelyne</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:42:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>279</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Can Will Graham understand why Hannibal Lecter did the things he did?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Understand Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This takes place at the end of the first season and the beginning of the second. This was partially inspired by the Depeche Mode song, Shake the Disease, which I visualized being from Will’s perspective, but this story from Hannibal’s took shape when the song mingled with the imagery from a gorgeous quote by Storm Constantine. I don’t own Hannibal but for months it has owned me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Pale, pale as the moonlight trapped within this cell, within these shabby prison rags he seemed, pale and fragile. </p><p>Hannibal was the one who put him here, locked him away from all he’d ever cared for, including himself. Now Chilton, the forces of justice and death itself contrived to steal Will Graham from him after Hannibal let Will slip through his fingers. </p><p>In his curiosity, Hannibal had gotten careless. Now he wanted Will Graham back so badly, only he wasn’t ready. Will was still theirs; Jack Crawford’s, the ungrateful F.B.I. and the even more ungrateful sheep, bleating in rude ignorance of the debt they owed him. </p><p>Would Will understand? Could he understand? Hannibal might be on the opposite side of the law, but what he did was for Will’s sake. More and more, Will Graham was becoming his reason for everything. Miriam Lass in her windswept coastal cage, all of the Chesapeake Ripper’s former plans, they were nothing compared to Will Graham. He’d become the center of Hannibal’s world. </p><p>Perhaps this was why he’d decided to trust Abigail with Miriam’s care for now. To leave both of the girls in his hidden lair while he focused upon Will, Will’s former life, the trap he’d set into motion. </p><p>Nothing could go wrong, yet Hannibal himself wasn’t so how it would go. Few things went as predicted where Will Graham was concerned. </p><p>All he could hope for is that Will would understand him. The scales had dropped from his former patient’s eyes, to use his own words.</p><p>Now he could continue his journey to becoming Hannibal’s friend. Hannibal would do all he could to guide him along the way.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The quote that mingled with the song was this: </p><p>‘Oh, my beautiful one, you cannot want to leave me. I am your incubus, your nemesis. You must love me.’</p><p>Darien to Akaten in The Thorn Boy, by Storm Constantine</p><p>These words would be so perfect for Hannibal as the stag man, looking into Will’s cage, through the bars that separate them, I found myself thinking. (heart)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>